Step 2

Step 3

Sew children's sweater using a straight stitch with an 1/8-inch allowance (Use the finished bottom of the sweater and the cuffs of the sleeves to cut down on finishing time.) Use a zigzag stitch along the raw edges to finish them.

Step 4

Sew shoulders on both sides.

Step 5

Open up the wool piece and sew on both arms.

Step 6

Line up edges and sew from cuffs of sleeves to waist.

Step 7

You can purchase roving (wool before it's been spun into yarn) in a variety of colors, or you can dye your own. To dye your own, soak roving in hot water for 30 minutes. Combine together 1 teaspoon acid dye powder (marked for protein fibers), 1 teaspoon citric acid, and 1 cup boiling water to create the "stock" solution. To make a darker color, take 1/3 of stock solution and add a pinch of the opposite color your stock is (e.g., green if your stock is red, red if your stock is green). To make a lighter color, take 1/3 of stock solution and add to 1/3 cup water.

Step 8

Pour desired dye solution over roving laid on a sheet of plastic wrap. To set color, wrap in plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes or steam for 30 minutes. To rinse, swish around in a sink filled with cool, soapy water. Then, fill the sink with clear, cool water. Spin in washing machine to remove excess water, then air dry.

Step 9

To start needle felting, work on a 4-inch-thick foam pad. Pull off a long strip of roving, and lay it down on wool sweater.

Step 10

Use a felting needle to poke it and tack it down. Coarser needles are faster and for deeper felting. (Sarah recommends using a medium to coarse needle, 36 to 38 gauge.)

Step 11

Begin to shape the roving by stabbing it down into the sweater in the shape you want it to be (choose from the templates listed above).

Step 12

Once positioned, poke the entire surface repeatedly until roving fibers and sweater fibers mesh together (the barbs of the needle grab onto the roving and interlock it to the fibers of the wool sweater).

Step 13

Repeat process with different colors to create details like eyes, antennae, and grass.

Step 14

For circles, such as the ladybug's wings, take a little piece of roving, place it on the wool, and stab it a few times in the center of where you want to tack it down. Then, use your felting needle to swirl the fluffy part around, as you do with spaghetti, and then stab it down in place. Tape together two needles to work quicker.

Step 15

Finish inside edges of front sides with grosgrain ribbon and needle-felt a border along the collar.

Step 16

Create buttonholes using a sewing machine, or create a "buttonhole" loop by taking a fabric-covered hair elastic and sandwich a loop between ribbon facing and sweater.

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Reviews (8)

there is a website called
living felt and it has really good quality felting stuff, I bought stuff from there and it's got really nice wool , that comes in soo many colours!

check it out

hobbes201122 Jun, 2011

Synthetic fibers don't felt very well. A garment needs to be made 100% wool to felt properly. You might be able to get by with one that has a small percentage of other animal fiber such as mohair or alpaca.

sharger18 Aug, 2010

Does the sweater need to be 100% wool, or would a 63%wool 37%nylon work?

Hey janisellen, if you click on the PRINT option, the written instructions include a link to the pattern templates.

Faye571 Mar, 2009

Hey janisellen, if you click on the PRINT option, the written instructions include a link to the pattern templates.

janisellen30 Jan, 2009

How can I get the templates for these sweaters?

theemptynest25 Jan, 2009

This may be old news, but please tell your audience not to just throw sweaters in washing machine without first putting them in a lingerie or I use a pillow case with a rubber band closure. Skipping this important step will kill your machine quickly!
Fondly..Janet theemptynest.etsy.com